Book Review: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing

A riveting and mind-boggling account of Shackleton's failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Published 1958, 288 pages

In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.

Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean on the globe and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains. The book recounts a harrowing adventure, but ultimately it is the nobility of these men and their indefatigable will that shines through.

( Few men in history have ever been so unbelievably f***ed. )

Verdict: Non-fiction that is nail-biting and amazing. If you don't know much about Shackleton's expedition, this is the book that elevated Shackleton's reputation above that of Robert Scott and made him a British national hero. (After returning from Antarctica, his expedition was generally considered a failed one and his reputation faded until the second half of the 20th century.) One of those few true stories that really is full of miracles and heroism.

Book Review: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing

A riveting and mind-boggling account of Shackleton's failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Published 1958, 288 pages

In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.

Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean on the globe and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains. The book recounts a harrowing adventure, but ultimately it is the nobility of these men and their indefatigable will that shines through.

( Few men in history have ever been so unbelievably f***ed. )

Verdict: Non-fiction that is nail-biting and amazing. If you don't know much about Shackleton's expedition, this is the book that elevated Shackleton's reputation above that of Robert Scott and made him a British national hero. (After returning from Antarctica, his expedition was generally considered a failed one and his reputation faded until the second half of the 20th century.) One of those few true stories that really is full of miracles and heroism.